Difference between revisions of "Houstonia procumbens"
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===Fire ecology=== <!--Fire tolerance, fire dependence, adaptive fire responses--> | ===Fire ecology=== <!--Fire tolerance, fire dependence, adaptive fire responses--> | ||
| − | This species has been found in habitat that is often maintained by occasional fire.<ref name=fsu/> | + | This species has been found in habitat that is often maintained by occasional fire.<ref name=fsu/> It benefits most from summer burn regiments and then lesser spring burn regiments rather than winter burn regiments.<ref>Kush, J. S., et al. (2000). Understory plant community response to season of burn in natural longleaf pine forests. Proceedings 21st Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference. Fire and forest ecology: innovative silviculture & vegetation management, Tallahassee, FL, Tall Timbers Research, Inc.</ref> |
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===Pollination=== | ===Pollination=== | ||
It is a nectar source in late winter and early Spring, visited by butterflies including the zebra swallowtail (''Eurytides marcellus'').<ref>Post by "Brenda's Butterfly Habitat" to Florida Flora and Ecosystematics Post on Facebeook, February 18, 2015.</ref> | It is a nectar source in late winter and early Spring, visited by butterflies including the zebra swallowtail (''Eurytides marcellus'').<ref>Post by "Brenda's Butterfly Habitat" to Florida Flora and Ecosystematics Post on Facebeook, February 18, 2015.</ref> | ||
Revision as of 12:29, 22 May 2019
| Houstonia procumbens | |
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| Photo was taken by Gil Nelson | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants |
| Class: | Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons |
| Order: | Rubiales |
| Family: | Rubiaceae |
| Genus: | Houstonia |
| Species: | H. procumbens |
| Binomial name | |
| Houstonia procumbens (Walter ex J.F. Gmel.) Standl. | |
| |
| Natural range of Houstonia procumbens from USDA NRCS Plants Database. | |
Common names: Roundleaf bluet; Creeping bluet; Fairy-footprints; Innocence
Contents
Taxonomic notes
Synonyms: Hedyotis procumbens (Walter ex J.F. Gmelin) Fosberg; Houstonia rotundifolia Michaux; Houstonia procumbens (Walter ex J.F. Gmelin) Standley var. procumbens; Houstonia procumbens (Walter ex J.F. Gmelin) Standley var. hirsuta (W.H. Lewis) D. B. Ward
Description
Houstonia procumbens is a perennial herbaceous species with a procumbent, spreading growth habit and small white flowers.[1]
"Erect or creeping annuals or perennials. Leaves opposite, the bases connected by small stipules. Flowers in cymes or appearing solitary; sepals 4, lanceolate or subulate; corolla salverform or funnelform, lobes usually shorter than the tube; stamens 4, included. Capsule 2-locular, slightly flattened, the lower ½ enclosed by the calyx tube, the apex loculicidal."[2]
"Prostrate or weakly decumbent, creeping perennial, the solitary pedicels erect, 1-4 cm tall. Leaves widely ovate to suborbicular, 7-10 mm long, 4-10 mm wide, margins ciliolate. Corolla white, the tube 5-7 mm long, glabrous within, lobes 4-6 mm long. Capsule 3-4 mm broad." [2]
Distribution
It is distributed in the southeastern coastal plain, from southeastern South Carolina south to southern Florida and west to southeastern Louisiana.[3]
Ecology
Habitat
Generally, H. procumbens can be found on wet to moist sandy pinelands as well as beach dunes.[3] As well, it grows in mostly moist open areas and pinelands or disturbed sites.[4] It occurs in moist to dry sandy or loamy soils, or in loose sand. It can be found in light conditions from partial shade to full sun. Native habitat it can be found in includes longleaf pine-scrub oak-wiregrass sand ridges, mixed hardwood woodlands, open slash pine stands, sand dunes, turkey oak scrub, and on stream banks. However, it can also occur in disturbed habitat such as roadsides, parking areas, cutover pinewoods, mowed lawns, bulldozed slash pine savannas, open pastures, and along trails.[1]
Associated species include Pinus palustris, Quercus, Aristida stricta, Pinus elliottii, Quercus virginiana, Phlox floridana, Stillingia sylvatica, Asimina longifolia var. spathulata, Lactuca graminifolia, Stylosanthes biflora, Erigeron strigosa, Baptisia lanceolata, Hedyotis crassifolia, Pterocaulon undulatum, Asclepias humistrata, and Quercus hemisphaerica.[1]
Phenology
This species generally flowers from October until April. Since it flowers in the winter, it can easily be overlooked by botanists who are more likely to be in the field around other times.[3] It has been observed flowering in January through May, July, August, and October with peak inflorescence in February. Fruiting has been observed in February through May, October, and November.[1][5] From the upper peninsula of Florida southward its flowering tends to be limited to the winter months.[6]
Seed dispersal
This species is thought to be dispersed by gravity. [7] Edwin Bridges and Alex Griffel observed in a sandhill woodland scrubby flatwoods in Polk County, Florida that, following flowering, as the fruit develops, the pedicels of the fruit recurve, and the fruit becomes buried in the sand below the prostrate leafy stems. When flowering is done, from above it looks like the plants are vegetative only, but if you pull them up and turn them over you can see abundant fruit.[8]
Seed bank and germination
For more successful germination, seeds of H. procumbens should be treated with moist stratification.[4] In a longleaf pine community in southwestern Georgia, it was found both in the standing vegetation and in the seedbank.[9]
Fire ecology
This species has been found in habitat that is often maintained by occasional fire.[1] It benefits most from summer burn regiments and then lesser spring burn regiments rather than winter burn regiments.[10]
Pollination
It is a nectar source in late winter and early Spring, visited by butterflies including the zebra swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus).[11]
Conservation and management
Cultivation and restoration
Photo Gallery
References and notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: June 2014. Collectors: Harry E. Ahles, Loran C. Anderson, George R. Cooley, Delzie Demaree, Patricia Elliott, Suellen Folensbee, J. P. Gillespie, Robert K. Godfrey, Gary R. Knight, R. Komarek, R. Kral, Sidney McDaniel, R. S. Mitchell, Joseph Monachino, R. A. Norris, Kevin Oakes, Elmer C. Prichard, Gwynn W. Ramsey, W. D. Reese, Paul O. Schallert, John W. Thieret, L. B. Trott, and Jean W. Wooten. States and Counties: Florida: Bay, Brevard, Citrus, Franklin, Gadsden, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Polk, Sarasota, Seminole, Suwannee, Volusia, Wakulla, Walton, and Washington. Georgia: Grady and Thomas. Louisiana: Washington. South Carolina: Colleton.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Radford, Albert E., Harry E. Ahles, and C. Ritchie Bell. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. 1964, 1968. The University of North Carolina Press. 981-3. Print.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Weakley, A. S. (2015). Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Herbarium.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 [[1]] Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Accessed: May 22, 2019
- ↑ Nelson, G. PanFlora: Plant data for the eastern United States with emphasis on the Southeastern Coastal Plains, Florida, and the Florida Panhandle. www.gilnelson.com/PanFlora/ Accessed: 12 DEC 2016
- ↑ Amye C. Travis post to Florida Flora and Ecosystematics Group on Facebook, January 4, 2017.
- ↑ Kirkman, L. Katherine. Unpublished database of seed dispersal mode of plants found in Coastal Plain longleaf pine-grasslands of the Jones Ecological Research Center, Georgia.
- ↑ Edwin Bridges post to Florida Flora and Ecosystematics Group on Facebook, February 23, 2017.
- ↑ Andreu, M. G., et al. 2009. Can managers bank on seed banks when restoring Pinus taeda L. plantations in southwest Georgia? Restoration Ecology 17:586-596.
- ↑ Kush, J. S., et al. (2000). Understory plant community response to season of burn in natural longleaf pine forests. Proceedings 21st Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference. Fire and forest ecology: innovative silviculture & vegetation management, Tallahassee, FL, Tall Timbers Research, Inc.
- ↑ Post by "Brenda's Butterfly Habitat" to Florida Flora and Ecosystematics Post on Facebeook, February 18, 2015.
